1. Olax.] 53. OLACACEM. [2. Opilia 



Sometimes an erect shrub, 1 usually scandent with woody 

 trunk attaining 1 ft. diam. with pubescent branchlets and 

 white flowers in short axillary racemes. Fruit yellow fleshy, 

 J" diam. more than half enclosed in the truncate calyx. 



Stony ground, especially near ravines, common. Singbhum, Manbhnm 

 and throughout Ch. Nagpur. S. P. Pis. April-June. Fr. Oct.-Dec. Ever- 

 green. 



Rarely thorny. L somewhat distichous, coriaceous elliptic or ell.- 

 ovate or oblong, obtuse, with rounded base, attaining 3" by If , rarely 4|" 

 by If". Sec. n. slender, not raised, lowest close jbo the base. Petioles h-Y' 

 pubescent. Fls. on short pedicels, often distichous sometimes panided 

 from leaf suppression. Calyx ciliate. Petals narrow, $-$■'' long. St. 7-10 

 at base of corolla, only 3-5 fertile, staminodes 2-fid. Diso thin, cupular. 



The fruit is eaten. It is insipid and somewhat viscous. A sherbert 

 is made from it in Hazaribagh. 



9: 0. nana, Wall. Merom-met', S. 



A suffruticose perennial with a woody rootstock, sending 

 up annually erect strict herbaceous shoots 1-2 ft. high with 

 Bub-sessile oblong-lanceolate or linear-oblong leaves and 

 solitary axillary small white flowers. 



Open places, and scrub jungles, Manbhum. Fls. May. Fr. May. 



Shoots striate. L. glabrous, reaching 3' by |-f" obtuse. Peduncles \'' 

 long. Fls. \'' white when expanded, buds oblong. Calyx rudimentary 

 in flower, growing up and enclosing the fruit with a fleshy scarlet 

 covering. Petals 3 linear-oblong. Fertile St. 3, Stmnds. 3, white 2-fid. 

 Fruit (with calyx) h' 1 diam., oblong or obovoid. 



2. Opilia, Roxb. 

 1.0. amentacea, Roxb. 



A scandent shrub with fulvous-tomentose branchlets and 

 lanceolate or lanceolate-ovate leaves. Fls. very small green- 

 ish slender-pedicelled in threes, racemose, concealed when 

 young by orbicular-rhomboid ciliate bracts which are arranged 

 in catkin-like axillary and extra axillary spikes f-lj* long. 



1 A root parasite. Vide Studies in Root Parasitism by C. A. Barber, 

 Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India, Botanical Series, 

 Vol. II, No. IV. 



372 



